Cricket Question

Today I was watching a bit of cricket on the television, and I there was a delivery where two of the three stumps were knocked out of the ground. This got me thinking, would it be possible for all three stumped to be knocked out the ground, or even is it possible for the two on either side to be knocked out just leaving the middle stump.

Are either of those scenarios physically possible? I mean if anyone would like some additional information on the dimensions of the stumps just say and I will have a look. I guess we would need to know how much force would need to be applied to knock a stump out of the ground.

Maybe we don't need to get into anything too technical, maybe it is just fact that you cannot knock the left and right stump out without the middle.

Although we'd need a real scientist to verify it, I can envision a "Newton's cradle" effect. If you were to just barely clip the outside edge on one stick with enough force to uproot it, it might topple sideways and transfer that force through the centre stick to the one on the opposite side. The middle one might therefore remain in the ground while the other two are dislodged. Seems pretty far-fetched, though.

Although we'd need a real scientist to verify it, I can envision a "Newton's cradle" effect. If you were to just barely clip the outside edge on one stick with enough force to uproot it, it might topple sideways and transfer that force through the centre stick to the one on the opposite side. The middle one might therefore remain in the ground while the other two are dislodged. Seems pretty far-fetched, though.

You could also come with with a scenario where the first stump does an acrobatic jump over the middle stump and kocks out the last one.

Thanks, Gokul; that looks more promising. Still, for the acrobatic flip, you'd pretty much have to hit the ground and the stick at the same time, or maybe the ground first, to get an upward trajectory on the stick (or not ).

Knocking three stumps out of the ground is certainly possible - I've seen it once or twice. But, a couple of times in 10 years of watching cricket means it's probably a rare event! I think Darren Gough managed it in a ODI - although I wouldn't quote me on that, it's a very fuzzy memory. What happened was the ball swung in from the off-side and hit the middle stump at an angle, sending the middle stump flying into the leg stump, and the ball rebounded and managed to knock the off stump out as well. It was quite a sight!

By the way, Danger, just for reference, in cricket you have to make the ball bounce, so the ball would have some upwards trajectory. Believe me, you don't want a cricket ball flying at your head at 80/90 mph!

As for knocking out the two outer stumps, I'd think it'd be impossible to do during a match. As you bowl face on at the stumps (ie the pictures of the wickets is what the ball would 'see' as it's being bowled), you'd never be able to impart enough sideways momentum onto the stumps. And even if you found a superhuman bowler so that it was, the stumps would be knocked back so far by the 'forward' momentum that it'd be nowhere near the other stumps! Although, saying that, it might be possible if you threw the ball back after fielding, and you were square of the wickets. But yeah, still very unlikely!

EDIT: It might worth emailing BBC's Test Match Special programme. It's hosted by a load of old farts....I mean veteran ex-players (:tongue2:) that know everything that ever happened! Seriously - if it ever has happened, they would know.

never be able to impart enough sideways momentum onto the stumps. And even if you found a superhuman bowler so that it was, the stumps would be knocked back so far by the 'forward' momentum that it'd be nowhere near the other stumps!

I have no idea of how firmly rooted those sticks are. I was going strictly from my experience as a pool player. There is something in my town that is generally called a 'Danny cut', since I was the only person (when I first started playing) who was dumb enough to try it. Fortunately, it worked. Unfortunately, much better players than me picked up on it and have regularly kicked my ass ever since, using my own secret weapon against me. (My curse in pool is that I teach better than I play, so my proteges end up being better than me. :grumpy:) Anyhow, I regularly cut balls at extreme angles, and as far as I know, I'm the only one who managed a cut of over 90º. You just put on a ****load of opposite spin and aim for the paint on the edge of the object ball. There's a bit of imparted masse involved. The downside is that you have to absolutely belt the cueball to transfer enough force, so there's no determining where it's going to end up after the shot. I was thinking that the same effect might apply to the cricket situation.
Thanks for the info about cricket. I've seen little clips of it on the sports section of the news, but don't really know anything about it.

Knocking three stumps out of the ground is certainly possible - I've seen it once or twice. But, a couple of times in 10 years of watching cricket means it's probably a rare event! I think Darren Gough managed it in a ODI - although I wouldn't quote me on that, it's a very fuzzy memory. What happened was the ball swung in from the off-side and hit the middle stump at an angle, sending the middle stump flying into the leg stump, and the ball rebounded and managed to knock the off stump out as well. It was quite a sight!

By the way, Danger, just for reference, in cricket you have to make the ball bounce, so the ball would have some upwards trajectory. Believe me, you don't want a cricket ball flying at your head at 80/90 mph!

It doesn't have to bounce, as long as it is under a certain height. That is waist height for fast bowlers and a bit higher for slow bowlers.

My curse in pool is that I teach better than I play, so my proteges end up being better than me. :grumpy:)

I think England share your frustrations. We invent all these wonderful sports - Football/Soccer, Cricket, Rugby, Golf - export them all over the empire, and everyone gets better than us! It's not fair! :tongue2:

_Mayday_ said:

It doesn't have to bounce, as long as it is under a certain height.

Yeah, my bad. You normally see it bounce, but of course, you're right - you don't have to do so.

England should learn something from the Americans. Make a good sport, while making sure it isn't quite good enough to catch on in any other countries, and then talk about how amazing England is at it. Some small countries like Nepal may start a team but then you can just mash em' and feel great about it.

Are people still able to post when a thread have been [Solved] I feel that I have the necessary information I was seeking, but in future someone might stumble across this thread and have some input.